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Capturing Digital Video

If you want to transfer video from the digital camcorder to the computer, the fastest and easiest way to do it is through firewire. Connect the firewire cable to the camcorder, via the firewire port on the right side of the camera.

You will then need to open the DVTools (Start Menu -> Programs -> Pinnacle Systems DV500 -> DVTools). After the DVTools window pops up, a preferences window should also pop up.

After making sure that the settings are the same in the picture above, hit OK. You will then want to go to the Tools menu, and choose Scan DV Tape. You can also click on the top-most button on the right side to start scanning the tape.

This program will scan the entire tape, which is quite time consuming. Every piece of video in between where you stopped recording is considered a clip. Each clip will have its own entry in the window that pops up. You will want to drag the clips that you want to capture into the Capture Gallery. Once you have done that with all of the clips that you want to capture, go to the Tools menu again, and choose the Capture Scenes From Capture Gallery option.

The clips that you selected will then be downloaded to the computer through the firewire cable. Once the downloads have been completed, you can close the DVTools application and launch Adobe Premiere (Start Menu -> Programs -> Pinnacle Systems DV500 -> Adobe Premiere). We are currently using version 5.1.

After the progrm is launched, Premiere will ask you for new project settings (see below picture).

To bring these clips into your Premiere project, go to the file menu and choose import file.

Then find the file that you just made, and hit Open. If you are looking for a file that is on the F drive (which is where video editing files should be stored), you will need to first go to the desktop to get to the F: drive.

Double-click on Shortcut to Users (F).